I’m a sucker for a well-sung harmony. You know the sort of thing, a radiant Gibb brothers burst of aural sunshine, a California-coated Mamas and Papas heart melter, a slow-ooze of Bellshill Beach Boys triple-stacked greatness from the three original Teenage Fanclubbers out front with the mics and the guitars and the great, great tunes. A handful of voices, melding as one. Beautiful.
There is, in the Venn Diagram of harmony singing, a sweet spot that never fails to stop my world and send me momentarily dizzy. Voice A sings this note. Voice B sings that note. Voice C sings another note…and what comes out is a brand new note, pure and smooth and honeyed, entirely unattainable by one voice alone. Gasp. Swoon. Melt. And back to emptying the bins.
You’ll recognise that very sweet spot on the chorus of The Band‘s The Weight, when the group come in one by one – “a-a-aaand…you put the load right on me,’ – creating a vocal swell that sets the seratonin flyin’. It’s probably now playing in your head as you read. Sorry. Not sorry.
You’ll recognise it in the gently lilting Flightless Bird, American Mouth, a slow-burning waltz-time beauty from Iron And Wine that should be far greater appreciated than it appears to be. Three plays in and it’ll be your new favourite song. Seek it out.
And you’ll know it from The Beatles‘ Because, a track I daresay you’ll know inside out and back to front. From its opening, elongated ‘aaaaahs’ via its ‘high-igh-igh-igh‘ mid section to its golden glazed ‘ah-ah-ahs and goosebump inducing woo-oo-oo-oos” that float above the stew of harpsichord and Moog, Because is harmony in a can, a sort of medieval soundtracked stoned soul picnic for the mass market. Ain’t no-one better than The Beatles at creating such legal highs, and that’s the truth.
Elliott Smith was something of a master of the stacked harmony. Being a one-man band, this wasn’t something he could attempt in the live setting, but on record he really went for it, Fabs-style, overlapping and multi-tracking his voice to infinity in his quest to create an art that will prove to be ever-lasting.
Elliott Smith – Sweet Adeline
Sweet Adeline opens XO. Some would argue it’s his best album. You might come to blows with another arguing the merits of the more indie and lo-fi Either Or. Or XO‘s full-blown follow-up, Figure 8. The correct answer though is indeed XO. But you knew that already.
Sweet Adeline squeaks and skates its way in on the sort of scratchy fingerpicked rundown that Paul Simon built his early career on. It’s just Elliott and his guitar, close-miked and singing in your ear, a one note organ adding texture in the background. Those bedroom miserabilists who’d been with him since the early days would’ve been unsurprised by this, and unsuspecting of what was just around the corner. I know I was. For anyone else, especially those of you with a background in raving and dance music, you’ll spot the drop just before it arrives.
Your keen-eared senses will tingle and twitch, picking up on the subtle fade in just before the drum crash and the jangling, barroom piano and the WHAM! of sound as the metaphorical curtains are thrown wide open and mid July aural sunshine floods the room. Elliott’s voice is all over it here, harmonising with himself, oooooing and aaaaahing and turning his initial charcoal grey pencil sketch into something of a Renaissance masterpiece. I must’ve played this track at least 300 times (that’s over 10 times a year since its release – seems conservative, but let’s not get carried away) and it never fails to fleetingly floor me.
Elliott Smith – Pretty (Ugly Before)
Elliott loved the John Lennon method of double-tracking every vocal take to smooth out the wrinkles and create something unique and widescreen in the process. Pretty (Ugly Before) is real late-era Elliott, recorded in a decent studio at his major label’s approval…a far cry from the lo-fi and hissy stuff that got his name out there in the first place.
Seizing his chance, he goes full-on Beatles; woozy background noises that bleed in at the start, clean and chiming ‘George’ guitar, a twangin’ twelve string riff between lines…and some terrifically heart-stopping harmonies. They take a while to emerge but when they do, around the three minute mark…wow!
‘Sunshine…been keepin’ me up for days,‘ he goes, and long-time listeners’ hearts sink as they realise their boy is back on the hard drugs again. Yet… Elliott can apparently function on the stuff. By the time we’re half way through, there are two distinct vocal lines, one linear and direct, the other swooping above and below the basic melody, curling around the edges, twisting back into shape then out again as Elliott slips into a refrain that’s Fab-heavy in backwards guitar and woozy mellotron. Listen too for the slow-motion ‘Ug-lee-bih-fore’ backing vocals that he stretches out like Play-Doh in the hands of a toddler. It’s all quite fantastic.
* Bonus Track!
Here’s Elliott’s sweet take on an early Beatles number where he joyfully and unselfconsciously harmonises with himself throughout, all the way from counted-in start to spoken-word fanboy end. Found and downloaded in the good old early ’00s day when such treasures were but a dial-up click away, it’s an enduring and faithful version.
Elliott Smith – I’ll Be Back
Plain Or Pan 